Gateway Books

[Random]

I was browsing around this morning waiting for the offsite to finish when I ran across this article about Gateway books on Tor.com.
Five Gateway Books

I started thinking about what would be my own and though it might make a fun discussion.

In my case, I really can't remember not being a reader. Before I could even actually read, I used to beg my mother to read from Winnie-the-Pooh or The House at Pooh Corner every evening. So, while I didn't actually read them myself, and not being able to read was SO very frustrating, I would call these my first gateway into the love of books and stories.

Now I have 2 much older brothers (like a decade older than me) who could be really cool once in a while even if they weren't most of the time. One day in second grade, I came home to find a book laying on my bed. It was The Secret of the Mansion, the first of the Trixie Belden series and I was hooked. (For those unfamiliar with them, they are along similar lines to the Nancy Drew series.) Prior to this there had been a lot of books, but nothing that really drew me in. This series did indeed do that and to this day I still enjoy mysteries here and there.

The next happened around 3rd grade. Again I came home to find three books sitting on my bed, the first three books of the The Earthsea Cycle. I promptly read all three, fell in love, and tried to read anything else I could find from Le Guin. Sadly it meant I was trying to read significantly above my level at the time and was unable to appreciate any of it until I was much older. But Earthsea introduced me to fantasy and started building a love for the genre that has only grown over the years.

Now I had always liked those Choose Your Own Adventure books. They could be fun to play with. One day still in grade school, while rummaging through my brothers' shelves I ran across a different kind of choose your own adventure book.: Return to Brookmere. I stole the book from them and never returned it. I also ended up scrimping and saving every penny I could earn to buy more of the series. It opened me to a different kind of fantasy that I didn't realize even existed.

Next, about grade 5 now, I came home to find yet another book sitting on my bed. This one was Dragonflight. Again it was devoured and again I did everything I could to get the rest of the books that were available at the time as well as every other book I could find from McCaffrey.

And, because I can't just leave it at five . . .

In 6th grade, again while rummaging through my brother's shelves, I discovered Dune and my first real introduction to Science Fiction (Pern felt very fantasy to me at that young age). It started my life long love for the subject which has grown exponentially through the years.

Looking through that list, I have just realized how much my brothers influenced my love for reading and for the SF and Fantasy genres. Maybe I should thank them sometime. :)

So, what about you? What were your gateway books either into reading in general, for specific genres, or similar?

[Ken]

I don't quite remember
I remember in grade school devouring Alfred Hitchcock's The Three Investigators. When I was 10 or so, my Dad used to take us to local used bookstore and I went looking for the Star Wars novelisation, after that I went looking for other SF and stumbled on LOTR. And thats all she wrote